During the preseason, Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell basically begged for another wide receiver to step up, mentioning the departed Josh Reynolds by name the second time he did so.
Alas, as could have been easy to see coming, the plan to replace Reynolds with who was already somewhere on the roster did not work out. So the shaping of the practice squad brought fliers on veterans Tim Patrick and Allen Robinson.
Patrick was elevated to the active roster for Sunday's game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. How much he would play was unclear, let alone if he'd dent the stat sheet.
Patrick played a noticeable amount against Tampa Bay, 33 snaps to be exact (39 percent snap share). He had two catches for 12 yards, and he nearly came down in-bounds with a third catch along the sideline. According to Pro Football Focus, he ran 21 routes.
Expectations should have been virtually non-existent, but Patrick showed he belonged after missing the last two seasons with the Denver Broncos due to major injuries. His size (6-4) and catch radius could certainly help a struggling Lions' red zone offense. Over the 2020 and 2021 seasons, when he was last healthy in the regular season, eight of his 11 touchdowns were in the red zone.
Tim Patrick has quickly earned a bigger role in the Lions' offense
Ideally, the Lions seem to want better balance in how they divide wide receiver snaps this side of Amon-Ra St. Brown. Jameson Williams played a career-high 92 percent of the snaps against the Buccaneers, and that is probably not sustainable long-term. As an example, Reynolds played more than 80 percent of the snaps in just four games last season as the Lions' No. 2 wide receiver.
Campbell was asked about his impression of Patrick during his Monday press conference.
"We liked him,” Campbell said. “It was good to see. I would say it was a positive showing. To be able to get him out there and implement him in some of what we were doing."
”It’d be nice to get him a little bit more (playing time)...“But I think that’s what we’ll do moving forward. I think the idea is to see if we can open this up a little bit and use him a little more. But, man, he’s big, he’s physical, (and) his catch radius is pretty enormous. So there’s a place for him here, and I see us using him moving forward.”
In terms of where Patrick's increase in playing time would come from, Campbell was asked a follow-up question about that. He hit the expected note about taking some snaps from Williams and Kalif Raymond.
"You take a little bit off of Jamo, you take a little bit off of Leaf ", Campbell said. “That’s probably where most of it comes from, to be honest with you, and you just kinda roll those guys through.”
The Lions can elevate Patrick from the practice squad two more times before they'd have to sign him to the 53-man roster. But based on Campbell's comments, he seems to have showed enough to be signed to the active roster soon. Maybe even before next Sunday's game against the Arizona Cardinals.